How big is too big when it comes to K-pop groups like NCT? With three more singers possibly joining, how far can boy band go?
- NCT was launched in 2016 as a boy band collective and currently has 20-plus members, who perform together and in subgroups NCT 127, NCT Dream and WayV
- With talk of three K-pop rookies joining too, some observers are asking whether NCT fans will accept more new members or whether the group has reached capacity
The start of July saw some fresh additions to SM Entertainment’s roster, with the South Korean music label sharing news of three possible K-pop stars of the future: Eunseok, Shohei and Seunghan.
Introduced through social media and interviews with Women’s Wear Daily Korea, the trio are the latest talent SM has teased as part of its “SM Rookies” pre-debut group.
NCT was launched initially by SM Entertainment in 2016 after the label had announced plans to create a boy band with a fluid line-up that would feature an unlimited number of performers and subgroups. Currently, the group has more than 20 members, who perform in three subgroups – NCT 127, NCT Dream, and WayV; there are plans for two more, NCT Japan and NCT Hollywood.
The last new members to be introduced to NCT were Shotaro and Seungchan in 2020, neither of whom are currently active in any of its official subgroups but take part in performances that involve all the NCT members and smaller, temporary groupings.
Hopefully, they and the new trio will get more time in the spotlight with a new SM group by the end of the year.
Haechan of NCT and NCT 127: Confident, lovable and full of mischief
If more members join the already busy NCT apparatus, it’s going to be interesting to see how SM deals with it, given criticism about the size of NCT and about subgroups sometimes appearing to compete with each other even though each ostensibly targets a different audience and market.
Even though there have been attempts to give more NCT members time of their own in the spotlight, whether through social media channels or professional projects such as acting, modelling and singing on K-drama soundtracks, there simply doesn’t seem to be a way to spread content evenly across even the smallest K-pop groups, let alone one of the largest ones. With human existence, let alone that of succesful pop acts, relying on the availability of resources, energy and time, it’s hard to see how NCT’s continued growth won’t at one point meet maximum capacity.
Based on how much effort SM has put into it, it won’t be this new trio, or any other additions to NCT, that break the camel’s back; as one NCT 127 song lyric claims, there is limitless potential for artistic creation in the modern age of connectivity and technology, which is fitting for NCT, a band whose name stands for “Neo Culture Technology”.
But, as much as I enjoy the idea of NCT and am keenly awaiting news of NCT subgroups touring internationally (drop the dates, please!), I can’t help but wonder where the tipping point will be when fans will have enough of additions to the group. K-pop fans are immense in their passion and dedication, but one integral part of pop fandom experiences is often the competition, and with NCT continuing to grow, ostensibly as a singular act, it’s definitely an experiment in how fan behaviours can be shaped or changed.
Each individual and subgroup within NCT is full of talent, and can seemingly accomplish whatever they set their mind to. At what point does NCT become too large for fans, the label and the music industry to continue supporting the group?
We know from history and sociology that communities can only grow so big before breakaways form and loyalty wavers. While flexible musical groups can work – Japan’s AKB48 and related teams are notable examples – K-pop fans tend to base their love and support on the connection they feel to artists, building fierce fandom bonds between fan and star.
NCT’s sense of limitless flexibility is antithetical to this; if SM still intends to expand the group’s roster, how far can those bonds stretch before they are stretched so thin that break?
We already know that fans aren’t necessarily feeling some of the ideas that are supposed to make NCT so modular. NCT Dream’s entire concept was changed from a rotating subgroup of teenage members to a set line-up of the original seven members because fans loved them so much and were not receptive to the septet going their separate ways or to the introduction of new members.
SM has a history of changing decisions based on how fans respond: Super Junior debuted in 2005 with a rotating line-up and, much as with NCT Dream years later, SM ultimately solidified the line-up. Exo debuted in 2012 split into two groups, the Korea-focused K and the China-focused M, and were later combined into one.
That SM is still moving forward with the idea of an expansive, unified NCT, and that the subgroups and many of its individual members are seeing immense success in entertainment, is indeed impressive. But considering the pervasive “will they, won’t they?” question hanging over the future of each member within a subgroup, and of NCT as a whole, without any real structure is it a sustainable project?
When members have to go on social media to tell fans they aren’t leaving an NCT subgroup, such as when it was rumoured recently that Yuta would be leaving NCT 127 to become part of NCT Japan, it feels like perhaps this is the maximum capacity fans have for lack of clarity when it comes to an attempt at creating a limitless K-pop group.
Having no limits is an impressive goal, but we humans – and K-pop – thrive on structure and rules. It would be great, moving forward, to see some clarity regarding the future of this lofty idea that is NCT.
